I just won a seat into ‘Stars $650 WSOP Main Event Qualifier thru a $36 DS, twenty-five 12k pkgs are guaranteed. Tournament goes off Sunday at 6pm ET. I also won a seat into tonight’s $322 qualifier on Full Tilt but unregistered to use the T$ to try and sat into their $535 qualifier on Sunday.

I went to Venetian yesterday trying to have a positive attitude after what happened the night before. I sat down to the $550 and immediately lost a few pots bricking draws and was down to a little over $11k, we started with $15k.

For those who don’t play live tournaments, you really have to open your starting range. Even in a deep stack event, you just don’t see alot of hands. The play is so much slower than online. I try to see flops with any two broadway cards regardless of position. Wednesday, i won two big pots with QT.

Right before the 1st break I won back the chips I had spewed. Some guy raised in MP, another player called and i called from the BB with KTo. The flop came K-x-x with 2 spades. I had the Ts. I led out a little more than half the pot, original raiser calls and other guy folds. Turn is a brick, i bet out a little more than half the pot and he calls again. River brings another King. I bet out 2/3rd pot, he calls and mucks. I assume he had a pocket pair.

After the 1st break, I finally picked up AA for the first time in two days and open raise 3x. Get one caller, flop comes J-T-T. I bet, other guy mucks. Small pot but, at least I didn’t go broke. I sat with my starting stack for another level until I finally dubbled with AJo vs ATo to get to 26k. This was against a guy who loved making hero calls. I open raised 3.5x with AJo from LP, he called from the SB. Flop came A-J-K, he checked I bet and he shoved. I snap called and he said “I just didn’t think you’d bet so much with a big Ace”. shhhiiiippp

Then another weird hand came up. Action folds to some chick on the button who raises 3x, I call from the SB with KJo and so does the player in the BB. Flop comes A-J-T, we check she bets I call. Turn is another Ace. I check, she bets I call. River brings a K. This is the worst card I could possibly hope for even though my hand improved. She makes a really lame bet on the river and I figure I’m either crushed or she’s got some weak ass Jack so I call. Sure enough, she flips J-9 and I scoop a pretty big pot to take me to over 40k. The entire table is amazed at what we flip over.

Then things go really bad.

I pick up KdQd in the CO and call a guys raise from MP, BB calls. Flop comes J-6-6, it checks around. Turn is a K and the shorty in the BB shoves 11k into a 9k pot. Original raiser just smooth calls, I call. River is another 6. The guy in MP snap shoves, I call and he shows pocket JJ’s for a flopped boat. My boat is no good and I lose about 33k. A couple hands later I shove into an EP raiser with KJo, he calls and flips K3o, catches running spades and I’m out. Pretty brutal ending. I call Tina and tell her the bad news.

I’m super disappointed with how things went this week at the Venetian. I should’ve been playing Day 2 of the 330 yesterday. Instead I get kicked in the balls in the 550.

I decided to head over to the Rio to hang out with Al and Pauly for a while. We ended up at the bar having drinks with TJ and SmBoatDrinks. Funny story, I was playing video poker at the bar and got down to my last few coins. I tap the draw button and see all rags, i tap it again for a complete redraw and Al walks up. Guy next to me says “you have a straight flush”. I redrew the steel wheel Ah-5h for $50. Al is the anti-cooler. 🙂 I cash out and get to go home a winner.

Flying back in a few hours. Looking forward to getting home to Tina and the puppy.

Thanks for reading and all the tweet luv, maybe next time I’ll do something spectacular that will really be worth blogging about.

After over 12 hours of play we finally reached the money in yesterday’s Venetian $330. I had around 95k with the blinds at 4000/8000, far from comfortable. After we got ITM, I lost a race for about half my stack with 88 < KJo then tripled up with 66. I picked up JJ in consecutive hands and open shoved each time, picking up the blinds/antes the first time then losing a race to another player’s TT. The flop came A-Q-T giving me some outs but the resuck didn’t come and I finished 62nd of 914 for $529. If my JJ had held, i would’ve had an avg stack of just under 200k going into today’s Day 2. The payouts are very top heavy which is awesome if you final table, otherwise it blows. What i got paid last night just about covers my buy-in for today’s $550. I bought in last night to avoid the line. The tournament starts at noon.

Except for a late gate change to the other side of the airport, my flight to Vegas went smoothly. Surprisingly, about half the plane was empty. I don’t think i’ve ever seen a flight with that many empty seats on the way to Vegas before. I do enjoy the quick flight. By the time, i finished my beer we were approaching final decent. Much better than driving across the desert for 4+ hrs.

After checking in to Harrah’s, I went to the Venetian to register for today’s tournament. I heard there were 900 entrants in Tuesday’s $340 deepstack and 1st paid $70k. I didn’t make it over to Rio last night, instead I played 1/2 NL for about 6 hrs and ran pretty bad. I feel lucky to have walked away only down -$200 on the session. Hopefully, i got most of the run bad out of my system.

Heading to Venetian shortly, I’ll be posting updates sporadically throughout the day on twitter. Wish me luck.

I started looking into flights/hotels for Las Vegas and was able to get a deal for 3 nights at Harrah’s including airfare for $260 plus tax through USAirways Vacation site.

Pretty sick, Vegas is cheap right now!

With all the tournament series’ going on in addition to the WSOP, I decided to book it. I arrive in Las Vegas Tuesday 6/23 around 7pm local time and return on Friday night.

I’m planning to play at least two Venetian DeepStack tournaments, the $330 @ noon Wednesday and the $550 @ noon Thursday. I’m not gonna bother with satellites this time. The structures are awful. I’m better off trying to recover the buy-ins at the cash tables.

After I fly in Tuesday, I’ll cruise over to Venetian to buy-in to Wednesday’s tournament then stop by the Rio to say what’s up to a few people. Other than that, I really don’t have any other plans. I’ve read that TJ is planning a get together on Thursday night, so I’ll probably try to catch up with them after the Venetian tournament.

No WSOP events are planned unless I do really well at the Venetian or I’m able to win a seat into the Main Event online this weekend. I was able to satellite into the 150 seat guarantee scheduled this Sunday on Full Tilt. But, I haven’t had any luck winning a seat into PokerStar’s $650 qualifier. I’m still going to bang away at that.